Meteoritics & Planetary Science 42, Nr 4/5, 513–540 (2007) Abstract available online at http://meteoritics.org Petrography, geochemistry, and alteration of country rocks from the Bosumtwi impact structure, Ghana Forson KARIKARI1*, Ludovic FERRIÈRE1, Christian KOEBERL1, Wolf Uwe REIMOLD2, and Dieter MADER1 1Center for Earth Sciences, University of Vienna, Althanstrasse 14, A-1090 Vienna, Austria 2Museum of Natural History (Mineralogy), Humboldt University, Invalidenstrasse 43, D-10115 Berlin, Germany *Corresponding author. E-mail:
[email protected] (Received 27 October 2006; revision accepted 18 January 2007) Abstract–Samples of the country rocks that likely constituted the target rocks at the 1.07 Myr old Bosumtwi impact structure in Ghana, West Africa, collected outside of the crater rim in the northern and southern parts of the structure, were studied for their petrographic characteristics and analyzed for their major- and trace-element compositions. The country rocks, mainly meta-graywacke, shale, and phyllite of the Early Proterozoic Birimian Supergroup and some granites of similar age, are characterized by two generations of alteration. A pre-impact hydrothermal alteration, often along shear zones, is characterized by new growth of secondary minerals, such as chlorite, sericite, sulfides, and quartz, or replacement of some primary minerals, such as plagioclase and biotite, by secondary sericite and chlorite. A late, argillic alteration, mostly associated with the suevites, is characterized by alteration of the melt/glass clasts in the groundmass of suevites to phyllosilicates. Suevite, which occurs in restricted locations to the north and to the south-southwest of the crater rim, contains melt fragments, diaplectic quartz glass, ballen quartz, and clasts derived from the full variety of target rocks.